Jon Stewart got the ball rolling, and now even Shepard Smith is so disgusted by GOP obstructionism on the 9/11 health care bill that he read a list of the names of Republican senators who would not appear on Fox News to speak on the issue. DeMint, McConnell, Graham, Hatch, McCain… nobody wants to appear on TV and take responsibility for what they are doing.

Now the ball is in Harry Reid’s court. As Dave Dayen says, the Senate probably can’t take it up until Wednesday, and passage could take a week if Coburn and Enzi stretch things out. Which means they’d have to come back after Christmas to pass it. And then because the “pay for” is being changed to make Susan Collins happy, the House would have to pass the Senate version.

It’s revolting that the GOP has demagogued 9/11 to facilitate the wholesale looting of the U.S. Treasury in just about every conceivable fashion, but they don’t want to take responsibility for what happened to those we sent in to clean up the mess.

Tom Coburn, you’ll recall, is the guy who got up on the stump and demanded that Medicare Advantage was sacrosanct and could never be cut. And he’s a doctor, doncha’ know.

He didn’t mention that his OWN health care bill actually cut Medicare Advantage by MORE than the health care bill did. And rightly so, because as Jon Walker says, Medicare Advantage may be be “the biggest and most wasteful form of corporate welfare in the country.” We laughed out loud when we watched Coburn spew this gibberish on the floor of the Senate on December 1, 2009.

So let’s just remember. Tom Coburn gets all teary eyed when his fatcat donors from the medical industrial complex call up and tell him to defend the very program he himself was trying to slash in his zeal to control government spending. But that ol’ money belt starts a-tightenin’ once again when it’s health care for those firefighters, police men and other first responders who rushed in without thought for their own safety when the twin towers fell.

Hey Jon Stewart, if you want another “compare and contrast” segment, here you go: December 1 Senate Session, 1:27 into the session, Coburn bemoans cutting “120 billion out of seniors, the one in five seniors who have Medicare advantage.” He says the heartless Democrats are “taking away from the poorest of the elderly.”

Coburn’s own plan, which cuts $158 billion from Medicare Advantage, is called “The Patient’s Choice Act,” the supposedly deficit-neutral alternative to the Democratic plan. Here’s the bill, and here’s Coburn’s summary (PDF). And although Coburn has now broken the link to the page on his website, here’s the CBO figures citing $158 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage from his bill.

The bill is poorly written. It’s an open invitation for anyone who was at any of the 9/11 sites (in some cases for as little as four hours), and their families, to receive first-dollar health benefits and a lucrative cash settlement. It’s bad policy to make being disabled more financially attractive than working. That said, I don’t have a problem with the pay-fors in this bill. They don’t directly undercut any needed program. So what the heck, give them their Christmas Windfall Miracle.

I know she’s a bit busy plugging holes in the Wikileaks dam, but didn’t then Senator Clinton get slagged for her support of these workers against the Bush Adminstration ?? – I’m thinking it would be good optics to have her speak now in favor of something this WH claims to want so badly

In the Maine ,if the government hadn’t used the Reichstag event of 911, it in all likelihood created, in order to galvanize the American public behind invading the rest of the planet for lebensraum and bring fascism to our country perhaps it would make it easier for me to give more credence to this topic Jane.

As it is, I wonder if continuing to present topics for discussion as though the basic machinery that allows democracy to function here remains intact is doing anything other than perpetuating the most dangerous farce ever to confront our people and lending credibility to subterfuge while enabling the perpetrators.

The workers would have had precautions taken at the site if the government had not told them that it was totally safe to work there. Many would have remained healthy if they thought precautions like breathing apparatus were needed. Most of my SAR friends who were there lost their dogs early to cancers, etc. The cost of training one of those dogs is huge, not to mention the time and emotional committment, and it’s an individual cost. I think the bill should include compensation for the SAR dogs as well.

As a disabled person, I can assure you it sure as fuck is a lot more financially attractive than working! What fucking planet did you parachute in from? People would so much enjoy constant pain and suffering, endless Doctor’s visits, isolation at home, depression, in my own case I now enjoy subsisting on less per month than I previously earned in a single week and enduring people like you, who deride us for being malingerers, leeches, and dead weight on Society.

I find it unfortunate that FDL policy forbids me from responding in the puerile fashion in which I actually am strongly tempted to…

I’m with ya. No way I could live on my disability. If I didn’t have family, I’d be dead. Although some days the pain is so bad I wish I were, the fact is without them I’d be already. Anyway, just wanted to say you’re not the only one.

And for the third straight year our checks will remain the same. Funny, the bills I pay with mine didn’t stay the same.

Your initial comment seemed a bit harsh, bmull, but I have seen your comments here and other places as well, and I know you to be a thoughtful, considered, and compassionate person, so I hope that you will expand on your concerns further, as I have no doubt that there is merit in them, else you would not have them … or share them.

First dollar is logical – the only justification for deductibles come from the RAND study of the late 70′s early 80′s of 6000 persons in a little over 2000 families which showed that small per visit deductibles – $10 or less levels – cut unnecessary medical visits and thus costs without harming health outcomes.

That is a long way from todays United Health Plan for over 65 folks that offers claim payment – not of the claim but of reasonable and customary charges as determined by the company, after a $500 deductible against those health bills not paid by Medicare, but only after an out of pocket for non-drug costs deductible of $2250 is met per person – all for $820 per month for myself and my wife – half paid by my former company – and I am one of the lucky ones to get major med for claims that Medicare might deny. Needless to say – it has not paid a claim (other than cutting out of out pocket drug costs to under $5000 per year) despite heart attacks and cancer over the past few years – but I am ready for the cost of a transplant!

These Heroes can not afford 20% of the million one needs for a transplant – assuming they get approved for the operation by ins co. – and they should not need to worry about such things.

Well…The obstructionist Senators could get off their fat asses and, ya know, scribble out a better bill, doncha think? The point is, these dirtbags don’t want to do the right thing. They never want to the right thing, no matter the issue. It’s what they do. It’s who they are.

The esteemed Sen. Coburn is also a member in good standing of the notorious C Street’s “The Family”, devoted to Christianity and spreading the word of Jesus to poor African countries; especially those that have some natural resources that are valuable to corporate America.

What would Jesus tell Coburn about healthcare for first responers?
Apparently the answer is “sorry ’bout your luck”.

Does anyone really think it matters what the govt. said about the conditions at Ground Zero and Shanksville? Someone had to go there and dig for survivors and remains. It seems very likely that what meager protections the workers could avail themselves of would have failed and probably did.

These people are unimaginably stoic heroes who did work we could not have done. I couldn’t have done that. I couldn’t have seen what they saw and walked away a whole human being. You? Isn’t this obvious?

Isn’t this Socialist health care? Passing this bill might set some precedent. Pretty soon every American will be demanding a universal, single-payer, health care system. Oh wait….we did that and the oligarchy’s man, President Shameful, would have none of it. Not even a public option. Ain’t Capitalism grand! Peace

C Street’s “The Family”, is as devoted to Christianity as … fill in the blank.

Indeed just about every atheist I know displays more “Christian values” than the folks at “C Street”, and indeed in almost all cases displays as much of those values as the average Christian. I disagree with my atheist friends on many things but we agree on right and wrong – and the “Family” is into “wrong”.

I have no problem with Social Security Disability. It’s a very modest existence. In fact I support all worker’s benefits and the ability to seek redress in the courts. But under this bill you’d have to be a fool not to make up some condition like heartburn or stress because the payout is so easy to get and so huge. Some people will get millions of dollars. And I also disagree with the way the program is being sold, as an appeal to patriotism at Christmas time. I don’t like the implication that I’m an unpatriotic scrooge if I have concerns about something.

Some people/most of the searchers, surely deserve millions of dollars. A few people will scam the system – no matter the system, no matter the reason. If this bill helps the 9/11 responders, and if it has a chance of passing right now, it’s all good, even if it’s poorly written.

The only way to get the Right(capitalists) in this country to agree to do anything is by using the deceptive device of patriotism. Hell, we’re fighting two illegal and costly wars for “patriotic reasons” aren’t we? Peace

I guess I’ve always come from the view that no matter the system you put in place to help those that are deserving, some undeserving ones will always take advantage too. I can live that because IMO it’s better to err in giving benefits to those that don’t deserve them than it is to err in not giving anything to those that do.

No system will ever be perfect. If this one could use some tightening up, I don’t think pointing that out makes you a scrooge.

That’s what I said in my first comment. The pay-fors don’t undercut any truly needed program so I have no problem with it. If they were going to take the $6.2 billion from Head Start I’d have a huge problem with it.

Mojo. The Sator square. “I am the alpha and the omega.” (Apocalypse 1:8) ROTAS (top), OPERA, TENET, AR(L)EPO, SATOR (bottom). Read from top to bottom, or from left to right, or from right to left, or from bottom to top. “The alpha and the omega holds the wheel in work.” And PATER NOSTER or Our Father. Peace

Cholera Tom Coburn earned his teaparty street cred when he put a secret hold on the US donation to Haiti. He should be secretly held personally responsible for the cholera epidemic there, IMO. Cholera Coburn!

they only respond to that if their is some money for them. remeber that US millitary spending is the granddady monster corporate welfare program of all time. even US allies, such as Isreal, are getting some of that trillion dollar welfare money.

The lung problems of Ground Zero workers are well documented. I don’t contest that. One of the things I do have a problem with is that the doctors certifying these folks’ disabilities are not impartial. They have contracts to treat the workers, so the more the merrier. I have never seen a disability program structured this way.

NEW YORK — The network of health centers providing free medical tests and treatment to 58,000 people exposed to World Trade Center dust faces a less certain future if Congress doesn’t pass legislation aimed at helping victims of 9/11′s toxic legacy.

Senate Republicans last week blocked action on a bill appropriating up to $3.2 billion for medical programs caring for people who fell ill after breathing in ash and pulverized building materials at ground zero.

The act would have guaranteed at least eight years of strong, even lavish, funding for existing health programs for 9/11 responders and other New York City residents exposed to the dust.
[ ... ]

You know, I’m tired of the disability pity party.
My uncle came home from WWII a paraplegic. Instead of staying home feeling sorry for himself, he became a farmer..and a very successful one at that…you know, out of a wheel chair.

Yes. It was Hillary Clinton’s bill originally. Maloney introduced it in the House. It’s not clear why it took so long to advance. I suspect, in keeping with my usual cynicism, that the 9/11 workers didn’t want it to advance until they got their settlement from the city of New York.

I haven’t been following the ins and outs of the latest skirmishes in the Senate over this legislation, so I can’t answer certain key questions that Jane’s post immediately brings to mind – certain questions that, I think, must be publicly asked and answered for reporting on this issue (as on most issues in the Senate under current Party practices) to be complete and fair.

I’ll ask the questions anyway, in hopes that they’ll be answered (or at least raised) in future reporting here, or elsewhere, on this and similar issues in the Democratic-majority Senate:

1. Knowing that the end of this Congress is imminent and immovable, surely Majority Leader Harry Reid (joined by 15 or 16 of his Democratic colleagues) did not file a voluntary Rule 22 cloture motion on this legislation?

“Surely” Reid and other Democratic Senators didn’t or won’t file such a Rule 22 cloture motion, knowing that if they did file such an optional cloture motion, the majority Party in the Senate would not only be voluntarily imposing a 60-vote supermajority threshold for passage of this legislation, but also choosing to give Coburn and Enzi the ability to “stretch things out,” provided the motion passes with 60 votes, not just for “a week,” but for up to fifteen days, without the need to take the floor to debate during that time. Such an approach, obviously, is not a recipe for getting legislation through the Senate in the normal course of events, never mind through the tight schedule of an end-of-Congress lame-duck session.

[Yes, as I've been elaborating, that really is how all majority "cloture motions" (not to be confused with extended floor debate minority "filibusters" - unless you're a Senator seeking to avoid accounting for your Party's actions) work (in Reid's Senate, cloture motions now always and undemocratically filed in the absence of debating filibusters). And, unless I missed it, neither Tom Coburn nor Mike Enzi, nor any other Republican, held a gun to the head of the Democratic caucus to force them to file such a cloture motion to replace the regular simple-majority order of the Senate with Rule 22's supermajority cloture provisions.]

2. Whether or not Reid and the Democrats have, or will (as they now routinely do), invoke the supermajority and lengthy delay provisions of optional Rule 22 cloture, has Majority Leader Reid separately “filled the amendment tree” on this legislation – and thereby prevented the possibility of changing the legislation via amendment offered on the Senate floor by members of the minority, or otherwise?

If Reid has done or does do that – something that he’s done more frequently than any modern (and thus likely any) Senate Majority Leader – then those opposed to this legislation would have no way to change or improve the bill (or even to try to change or improve the bill) on the floor to address any concerns they may have about it, and could only express their opposition to the legislation in its present form, as Coburn and Enzi appear to be doing (despite the bile, some of it no doubt calculated demagoguery, that’s directed their way for daring to question anything having to do with compensation for the sacrifices made and injuries incurred by rescue workers on 9/11/2001).

3. For those of us who haven’t been paying attention, what are Coburn and/or Enzi saying, if anything, on the Senate floor to explain their opposition to the bill?

If Coburn & Enzi are not only avoiding expressing their concerns on FOX (assuming that those two have also been invited and declined to appear), but likewise avoiding public explanations in the Senate, I repeat my question at #1, with emphasis. Because, surely, Democratic Senators under Harry Reid didn’t voluntarily choose to impose Rule 22 supermajority cloture on the Senate, just to avoid bringing legislation to the floor as the rules provide (with advance notice and the right to offer floor amendments, thereby avoiding easy “objections” to requests to bypass that regular order) and, especially, to avoid forcing Coburn & Enzi to publicly speak on the floor about their opposition to this bill (that is, to “filibuster” the bill or amendments) and thus to delay a simple-majority vote on this legislation for a few days at most?? In other words, quoting Prairie Sunshine’s succinct description @ 18, to avoid arranging for a: “24-hour [non-cloture] Senate and get it done.”

Whereas, if the majority Democrats in fact did file or plan to file such a Rule 22 cloture motion, do they have a leg to stand on to complain about the lengthy Republican/minority “obstruction” that Rule 22 enables? Lengthy, relatively-easy obstruction that the Democratic majority invited into the Senate by deploying Rule 22′s optional supermajority cloture rule, in lieu of asking Reid to withdraw the Senate-suspending, make-believe quorum call (which doesn’t call the quorum, but does prevent the Presiding Officer from putting the pending question to a simple-majority vote of the Senate), so as to force any Senator opposed to the bill to actually take the floor to speak at physically-taxing length to try to delay or prevent the otherwise-imminent simple-majority vote on final passage.

I don’t get it, you’d think a doctor voting against health coverage would be like a farmer voting against food stamps. At least farmers get it that when the govt subsidizes your product, even by giving it to other people, it will still put ore money in your pocket.

Meanwhile doctors are their own worst enemy on healthcare reform. Private health insurers don’t provide any value beyond scooping up money that could be going to healthcare providers instead . That’s who they should be fighting, not the government. And in the HCR law , the insurers walked away with a half a trillion in subsidies (even the farmers would be impressed) and the doctors were put on the knife edge all year of draconian cuts in Medicare fees. Not sure how that happened, really.

It’s not so simple. This is money that was never promised to anybody. It’s extremely generous and in addition to the regular disability safety net.

In contrast, most large cities have unfunded public pension liabilities similar in magnitude to the cost of this bill (see page 29 of the PDFf below). Many of those teachers, government workers, and law enforcement are likely to have to give up PROMISED BENEFITS to meet the liabilities.